Thanks to all of you who sent in your cookery questions. Here are my answers to some that were sent in, check to see if yours is included. Sorry I couldn’t answer them all, but keep them coming in.
Sandra from Watford asked:
Can you please suggest something I can add to a salmon en croute! I am having a dinner party for 6 Only recipes I’ve seen done seem appetising , having veg added inside.. was thinking maybe a creamy sauce with prawns , if so what can I add to stop the pastry going soggy?
The classic Salmon “en croute” would have a nicely seasoned spinach layer in between the 2 fillets which is beautiful, but then I like to make some herb pancakes, smear them with a good quality olive tapenade, wrap these around the salmon, then wrap in puff pastry.
This adds a lovely flavour and keeps the moisture in allowing the pastry to stay crisp when baked.
Serve with a beurre blanc finished with dill or sorrel and you have the perfect dish.
Christine from Birmingham asked:
Hello Tom, my gravy seems to have gone to pot… I use grease from the meat or lard, add flour and make a roux add the stock but I seem to get flour lumps even when I’ve strained it? Help!!
When I was a young apprentice one of my jobs was to make the pan gravy. The trick is to make your roux exactly as you say but then allow it to cool to room temp. Bring your stock to boiling and then add in slowly, one ladle at a time making sure you mix to absorb all the liquid before adding more, this way you will have lovely smooth gravy when its finished.
Willie from Alness asked:
Hi Tom, Due to health reasons my grandson cannot have any grains or anything made with grain, he loves cauliflower cheese sauce and keeps asking for it, but as he cannot have anything made from grain, I cannot make the sauce, what else can I use instead of flour to make a cheese sauce?
I once had the most incredible cauliflower cheese in Italy, they had roasted the cauliflower beautifully in butter then place in a pot and drizzled cheese fondue over the top!!incredible
My recipe for cheese fondue below:
Ingredients
- 100ml white wine (don’t worry the alcohol cooks off!)
- 300g mixed cheeses, such as Cheddar, Gruyère or Blue Cheese, grated or crumbled
- 1 tsp potato starch
- 1.5 tbsp water
- Freshly ground black pepper
- Freshly grated nutmeg
- A pinch of salt
Method
- In a saucepan, bring the white wine to the boil. Turn the heat down to a simmer, then add all the cheeses and stir gently until melted.
- Mix the potato starch and water together and stir this into the cheese mixture. Cook for 5 minutes or so over a low heat until the mixture has thickened. Season with freshly ground pepper, nutmeg and salt to taste.
Lawrence from Helecine, Belgium asked:
Hi Tom, from the H&F cookbook, the Herb Emulsion / Parsley Emulsion, sauce split and wouldn’t emulsify – what am I doing wrong?
The enemy to a good, emulsified sauce is heat. If at any point the mixture gets too warm (above 37 C) it starts to split.
Once you’ve made your herb oil, chill it down, make sure your blender jug is chilled and when adding the oil to the eggs it’s a matter of slowly but surely. Too slow and the friction will heat the emulsion, too fast and it won’t emulsify properly.
If it looks like it’s getting too thick and won’t “accept” the oil add a small splash of room temp water.
It’s a skill worth learning as the result is delicious.
Holly from Bromley asked:
Dear Tom, Unfortunately, I don’t like the taste of pork sausage meat (unpopular, but I can’t help it). I always miss out on the good stuffing – vegetarian stuffing isn’t the same. I like bacon, but not sausage meat, even quality ones. I was thinking I could try making stuffing with beef; it seems like a 20% chuck mince might be the closest beefy alternative to pork sausage meat, but I don’t want to waste the ingredients if it is not going to work. Any advice on the beef or recipe would be amazing!
One of my favourite stuffing’s is made with duck meat including the skin which gives that essential fattiness which makes stuffing so delicious. I add the livers to give that deep intense flavour, this is beautiful rolled in parchment and foil then baked or pan fried in little patties
Ingredients
- 250g minced duck leg (including the skin)
- 50g minced chicken or duck liver
- 2g cracked black pepper
- 5g salt
- 25g unsalted butter
- 50g diced onion
- 1 clove chopped garlic
- 5g chopped parsley
- 120g fresh breadcrumbs
- 60g dried apricots
- 500ml chicken bouillon
Method
- Gently cook onions and garlic in butter, cool to room temperature.
- Add in breadcrumbs and chicken stock and stir together.
- Add in all other ingredients and mix together until combined.
Lisa from Scarborough asked:
Hi Tom, we’re going to have leg a leg of lamb as a change this Christmas, my question is, how easy would it be to bone and roll? Is it better left on the bone? What stuffing would you put with/in it? More than 1 question, sorry!
Leg of lamb is an incredible roast meat and one of my favourites, I would personally roast it on the bone, remove the meat once rested and then carve.
There are 3 basic muscles which you can see quite clearly once its roasted.
If you’d like to stuff the leg, I would suggest you get your butcher to bone it out for you as it can be quite tricky and takes a skill to do safely. Once deboned a wonderful stuffing is spinach and garlic with pine nuts.
Ingredients
- 150g quickly cooked spinach (squeezed out completely)
- 60g cooked finely chopped onion
- 30g pine nuts
- 5g raw grated garlic
- Salt and pepper
Method
Open out the leg, form a “sausage” of stuffing on the opened meat, wrap leg around stuffing then tie several times with string.
Stacy from Lowestoft asked:
I am wheat sensitive (not gluten) so use alternative flours. I can make shortcrust pastry but yet to find a decent alternative flour to make rough puff. I lean towards spelt, but I think it’s too heavy. What flour would you recommend? (I can’t use standard gluten free either, it has potato starch and I’m intolerant to nightshades which includes potatoes).
We also use spelt flour as I think it is an excellent ingredient but as you rightly point out the alternative flours don’t always offer the same results.
We have worked recently with using chickpea flour with the addition of Xantham gum (which you can buy from Holland and Barrett). This gives it a slightly better property to stretch for the incorporation of the fat in rough puff. Use it at a ratio of 1.5%.
Maree from Chesham asked:
I have some nduja from a local food market. What is the best recipe/use for it in your opinion please?
This is an easy one as my absolute favourite thing to eat at the moment is this recipe from my newest book. Nduja sausage rolls with smoked cheese.
Ingredients
- 500g herby pork sausages or sausage meat
- 50g nduja
- 3 pickled onions, finely chopped
- 40g fresh white breadcrumbs
- 60g scamorza (or you can use mozzarella or Cheddar), cut into very small cubes
- 375g packet ready-rolled puff pastry
- 1 large free-range egg yolk, beaten with a pinch of salt, to glaze
- 2 tsp fennel seeds
- Salt and freshly ground pepper
Method
- Put the sausage meat, nduja, chopped pickled onions, breadcrumbs and cheese cubes into a large bowl, season with salt and pepper and mix really well with your hands.
- Unravel the puff pastry and cut it in half lengthways, to give two 12 x 34cm rectangles.
- Place the sausage filling in a large disposable piping bag and cut o. the tip so that the opening is around 3cm in diameter. Pipe half the filling along the middle of one pastry rectangle. Brush the pastry edges with beaten egg and fold both edges up over the filling to enclose it, overlapping them slightly. Repeat with the other piece of pastry and remaining filling.
- Place both sausage rolls in the freezer for 20 minutes to firm up.
- Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 200°C/180°C Fan/Gas 6 and line a baking tray with baking paper.
- Using a very sharp knife, trim the ends of each roll and then cut each into 6 even-sized pieces.
- Place, seam side down, on the lined baking tray. Brush the tops with egg glaze and sprinkle with fennel seeds. Bake in the oven for 30 minutes or until golden and crisp.
- Transfer the sausage rolls to a wire rack and leave to cool slightly for a few minutes before eating.
Debbie from Bolton asked:
Hi Tom, my family love a mince beef and onion pie, however I struggle with keeping the gravy inside the pie a good gravy consistency even though when I make my filling I add flour to thicken and then cool the filling before putting in the pastry, when I cook the pie the gravy inside is thin any tips on how to keep the gravy thicker?
The trick here is about the cooking out of the pie filling, make sure that beef is deeply roasted in the pan, this intensifies the flavour and removes any excess liquid which will be released when baking.
Secondly, make sure you cook out the flour and then slowly add liquid a small amount at a time allowing the absorption to happen before adding more. This should solve your problem.
Jules from Newbury asked:
Your recipe of the month Pot Pies. Could these be made omitting the chicken thighs, would I need to increase the mushrooms or artichokes? I would make the chicken pot pies for others but I would need a vegetarian version for me.
Absolutely you can, use vegetable stock instead of chicken and then add some small new potatoes cut in half and tinned butter beans make a great addition.
Please keep you questions coming in.
